Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A Shiver of Light_ Mini Review_ by Laurel K Hamilton

I am Princess Meredith NicEssus. Legal name Meredith Gentry, because “Princess” looks so pretentious on a driver’s license. I was the first faerie princess born on American soil, but I wouldn't be the only one for much longer...Merry Gentry, ex–private detective, now full-time princess, knew she was descended from fertility goddesses, but when she learned she was about to have triplets, she began to understand what that might mean. Infertility has plagued the high ranks of faerie for centuries. Now nobles of both courts of faerie are coming to court Merry and her men, at their home in exile in the Western Lands of Los Angeles, because they will do anything to have babies of their own.Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, is a more dangerous problem. He tried to seduce Merry and, failing that, raped her. He’s using the human courts to sue for visitation rights, claiming that one of the babies is his. And though Merry knows she was already pregnant when he took her, she can’t prove it.

Ugh, okay here goes. This was not a good final book to this series.

1) LKH spends like twenty pages or more describing every character and what they are wearing more than once.

2) Two sex scenes, not horrible, though I don't mind it in this series because I think of it as "erotica." I mean it is about a fairy princess trying to get knocked up.

3) A character dies. Sorry if that spoils anything but it's an important character, the death is random, half "off scene" takes up about a page and I found it pointless.

4) The plot doesn't start until there is less than 100 pages left in the book. The biggest event takes place "off scene" and everything is rushed, where as we could have skipped 300 pages of clothing, drivel type conversation, my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours power struggles and Merry going on and on about her daughter's name is Cornish for Rose. (Seriously this gets mentioned like 5 times)

5) Every other page the Goddess is dropping Rose petals all over Merry in a sign of pleasure, contentment or approval. At no time does it mention these are magic and disappear or if some poor shmuck just follows Merry around sweeping up after her, or if everyone is constantly annoyed with wading through piles and piles or rotting rose petals.

6)Of course Merry's babies are SUPER SPECIAL SNOWFLAKES, already WAY powerful, even as newborns and perfectly beautiful with all their coloring (except eyes)One is spotted...like a dog. And Merry gets her figure back within a week and has no trouble doing everything she always has, as well as nurse triplets. But it's Magic so that explains everything, right? LKH has a kid I think but I also think it's been a few decades since she was pregnant cause wow....The labor was a paragraph long and she vaginally births triplets with no complications. Yikes.

7) This needed a huge edit and could have easily been a novella, like one you get in an ebook or in a anthology. I liked the idea of a wrap up to this series....but this was too much.